She's Collecting Castles and Staying at Copper Creek, a January-February 2021 Trip Report (Completed 5/7, Updated 5/17)

[tundra1]

I love reading both of your perspectives on this trip! We found with our larger group of 8 that lunches were better than dinners as a group. The little ones would be very hungry at lunchtime, by by dinner would be tired and cranky. Liberty Tree Tavern might have to end up being on our itinerary when we go there next year! The menu looks a lot like Garden Grill's menu, which we absolutely loved!

 

[GrandCalifornian]

It is the simple things...

Thank you! I love meeting new people in Disney and find most people very friendly and kind. That being said, I'd probably chat to a tree......lol! I have a trip booked with my oldest son to celebrate his 21st in August and then a couples trip with DH in December. We'll see if either happens. We want to be fully vaccinated before traveling and of course the current advisory against non essential travel has to be lifted.

We are hoping for you, and everyone else, that it clears up soon.

These pictures are stunning!
I love Melissa's arms in the air pose! Pure joy!

Thanks, the resort makes a wonderful subject, especially early in the morning when no one else is up. We have lots more pics to share.

She showed how we all felt to be in a park for the first time in a year!

I much prefer a lunch ADR....it's a nice break in the day and gives more flexibility for evening plans.

We like lunch ADRs when it is hot out to give a nice break, but it is even nicer to have a mask break.

I remember two periodic table jokes from the Jungle Cruise: the backside of water is O2H, and the skipper knows a joke about oxygen and potassium but it is just OK. Did you hear any other periodic table jokes on your Jungle Cruise?

There were like three or four others, they just kept coming. We can't remember them now, but I ting there was one about Lithium and Iron being Life...

Your early morning photos from the Wilderness Lodge are fantastic. I want to go RIGHT NOW.

Your morning in the park looked great too, including lunch. That dessert really is delicious.

That's why we love the pictures so much, it reminds us of being there. We can't wait to be back.

It was a great first park morning, and we did pretty well for rides considering we didn't have Fastpasses. We usually don't like to wait in many lines, and if it is long we just skip it.

Excited to follow along! WL is such a beautiful resort.

Also, my oldest DD is 11 and my youngest DD is 5 (with a DS in the middle) - it's always fun to read a TR when the kids are around the same age as mine! Definitely helps with planning.

It is fun to see how kids of similar ages react. ALlie had one of her best trips yet this year. I think she is appreciating it a bit more than she used to. Marshall just loved having people to talk to.

I am loving this trip report so far! Looking forward to more!

Thanks so much. We will write more as we can, usually making it through about a day a week. We love re-living the trip and having the record of what we did.

The WL photos are just breathtaking. Thank you so much! I've never been to Liberty Tree Tavern, but it is on our list for our Oct trip. I've had my eye on that dessert for a while now!

Thank you, it is all about the beautiful resort, it makes the pictures easy. Liberty Tree has never disapointed us, and the Oohey Gooey Toffee Cake is delicious.

Our family trip involved a lot of ADRs, and I definitely appreciated the break in the middle of the day. I feel like now more than ever it would be a good idea to set up lunch ADRs.

We usually avoid doing lunch and dinner ADRs on the same day, but we did it a few times this trip and enjoyed it. QS just wasn't as relaxing as it sometimes can be with the crowds and large party.

I’m really curious to see how what they’ve learned this past year will affect Disney going forward. They’ve always been incredibly innovative, but to stay open during a pandemic they’ve had to get extra creative. I guess sometimes it just takes flipping everything on its head to be able to see new answers. Security has always been a headache, but I’ve seen a lot of positive reviews on the new method. Or things like more robust mobile order, the ability to order takeout from some table service restaurants, characters appearing out of nowhere and not on a times guide again.

We think the scanners were in progress before Covid, and it worked out to be great timing. They make it so much easier and quicker to get people through security. Mobile order is getting better too, and overall DIsney does a great job of taking care of people, so we can't wait to see how it continues to get better.

Enjoying your report and looking forward to more

Great, thanks. We are going through pictures and writing as we can. We hoped to have the rest of the day up tonight, but we are headed out of town so it will have to be on Monday or Tuesday.

Following along, enjoying the resort pictures, looks lovely and so quiet!
We canceled our January trip, boo! It is nice to live vicariously through TRs.

Thanks! It is a beautiful resort, and particularly quiet when normal people are sleeping.

Too bad about your trip, but you can keep getting ideas for the next one, whenever it happens to be.

I love reading both of your perspectives on this trip! We found with our larger group of 8 that lunches were better than dinners as a group. The little ones would be very hungry at lunchtime, by by dinner would be tired and cranky. Liberty Tree Tavern might have to end up being on our itinerary when we go there next year! The menu looks a lot like Garden Grill's menu, which we absolutely loved!

Our kids tend to be night owls, so dinners are usually ok. We do enjoy lunch as a nice park break in the middle of the day, and it prevents people from getting hangry. We usually avoid having both lunch and dinner ADRs on the same day, but we did it a few times this trip and enjoyed it.
Garden Grill is a great meal too. It seemed to have a bit more variety than LTT, and seeing Mickey is great, but both are great.

 

[Skywatcher1206]

Great start to your trip report! We were at WDW January 22-25, 2021, staying at Coronado Springs and we loved being back in the magic, even for a short visit. Wilderness Lodge also has a special place in my heart as DH and I honeymooned there in 2007. Can't wait to read more!

 

[DKNHM]

Yay! You all are back! I binge read all of your previous trip reports, and loved them all. Can't wait to follow along and live vicariously.

 

[Wood Nymph]

I wondered around the resort before sunrise and got some pictures.

I just noticed that the fabric on one of the chandeliers is whiter than the other three. Other than that, the lodge looks great - as usual.

Melissa texted me about 7:10, then I saw the sunrise from Geyser Point.

Beautiful!

I really think these scanners are the best technology improvement I can recall at Disney.

I love the scanners. We never got stopped, even though I carried a stainless steel water bottle.

I didn’t even realize that lunch was family style now, but it worked out great.

It really did. The food was fantastic and we all left stuffed. It was an easy meal that everyone loved.

I didn't realize that Liberty Tree Tavern only served the feast when we went it October. But we were pleasantly surprised that we really enjoyed the meal. It was nice to have a salad for a change.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Great start to your trip report! We were at WDW January 22-25, 2021, staying at Coronado Springs and we loved being back in the magic, even for a short visit. Wilderness Lodge also has a special place in my heart as DH and I honeymooned there in 2007. Can't wait to read more!

That's great that you also got to make it back to WDW. We honeymooned at WL in June 2007, and that's when we fell in love with it. We love sharing our lodge.

Yay! You all are back! I binge read all of your previous trip reports, and loved them all. Can't wait to follow along and live vicariously.

Welcome back! We are back once again, and super excited that we had such a great trip despite (and sometimes because of) the COVID related changes.

I just noticed that the fabric on one of the chandeliers is whiter than the other three. Other than that, the lodge looks great - as usual.
Beautiful!

I noticed some repairs and updates on the chandeliers, but they do look great. I shot them from many different angles and levels over the 9 days.

I love the scanners. We never got stopped, even though I carried a stainless steel water bottle.

They are so great and so smart. They are also safe for individuals with implanted defibrillators to use, unlike the traditional metal detectors. It made life way easier.

I didn't realize that Liberty Tree Tavern only served the feast when we went it October. But we were pleasantly surprised that we really enjoyed the meal. It was nice to have a salad for a change.

It was a lot of great food, and we wound up eating more than we planned, since we had a big dinner coming too... Every bite was great though.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

After lunch we decided to check on the wait at Haunted Mansion.

It was showing a 20 min wait, but with Grandma's scooter we went and got a line pass for the group. We got a pass to come back at 2:25, which was a 20 min wait, so we headed up to the tangled restrooms and then the Momento Mori shop.

They had some really cute bags at Momento Mori and Allie really wanted a Lounge Fly backpack. I convinced her to wait, it was early in the trip for her one big thing.

When it was time we went to the "fastpass" entrance and basically went in the exit with the scooter. We walked through a dark tunnel from the exit to the line to get on the doom buggies, skipping the stretching room. I thought at the time that it was because of the scooter, but later learned they have the regular line just walking straight through the stretching room. (Good luck doing that in DL when it reopens...)

Side note, my grandpa worked on the elevator (stretching room) at the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland. He wasn't a big theme park guy but he liked that I was excited about it.

For some reason the only pictures we have from the Haunted Mansion are our photopass pictures, I think our designated photographer decided to take a nap on the ride.



I thought maybe the camera battery was dead, but we have ones from later, so perhaps I was just along for the ride. It was a nice dark nap, I mean ride...

He probably wouldn't have needed a nap if he wasn't up at 6:30 taking pictures of the Lodge.

After Haunted Mansion we decided that it was time to mosey back to the lodge for a bit. We did some shopping on the way out of the park and Marshall talked us into an RC Jackson Storm.

We also got Allie a sweatshirt, and Melissa a set of donut mouse ears. It was a fun mini shopping spree. Afterwards we went out and saw a couple of character cavalcades.


We saw Gaston on his horse, that was fun. All the princesses, and then after they were all gone Mickey and Minnie came out on the train station.




I really enjoyed this type of character viewing. We aren't big parade people and this was just perfect for us.

The spontaneous character events were really neat. I felt like we got to see way more characters than usual, and it wasn't the same old crowded parade over and over. They also achieved the goal of limiting crowds, because they just happened, without a crowd building up for them.

After watching the cavalcades and seeing Mickey we said goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa to head over to the other side of Main Street to see if there were any new Dooney's that I needed.

There was the Disney Dogs one in a tote for $300, or a parks duffle for $400, but Melissa decided neither was "it". I think Melissa is annoyed that Stitch isn't included with the dogs on the Dooney bag.


yes, if Stitch was on that tote I probably would have bought it. But it's a good thing I didn't because there's other good stuff to come.

We left the park at 3:40 and walked to the new WL boat dock, which is on the right as you walk out, over by the new walkway to the Grand Floridian, and towards the water from the monorail station. With the Poly and Grand Floridian using the old dock and Fort Wilderness and Wilderness Lodge using the new one, it gives more boat dock access overall.


It took a little getting used to the new dock location for us. We use the boats all the time and have spent lots of time on the old dock.

We waited for a boat, and got on a big one at 3:57 which left at 3:59. We arrived back at Wilderness Lodge at 4:05. On our way up to the room we stopped at Roaring Fork for a "refill", and saw that they were doing the tie dye shirts outside.

The kids were excited to do it and it was a good time early in the trip so we wouldn't have to bring home wet shirts so we obliged.


They had fun with it, and the recreation CMs were great. I couldn't resist taking some courtyard waterfall pics.


We got up to the room at 4:40, which gave us just enough time for a quick break before we headed out at 5:00. We went down to the bus stop and walked right on a bus that was waiting at 5:12. We were headed for Disney Springs, and we arrived there at 5:27.


It was a super duper quick and easy trip. In general we had amazing bus luck this trip which was not expected with all the covid changes.


The bus drivers are supposed to assign you seating areas based on the number of people in your party, but more often than not there were so few people on the bus that we were able to sit wherever we wanted. We never rode on a totally full bus, and at multiple times had an entire bus to ourselves. I think we got really lucky largely because with the hotel side of WL being closed, there just weren't that many people on the WL buses. Buses also are were not being shared between any resorts, so we always had a quick direct ride.

When we got to Disney Springs we expected to have to go through security but we just had a temp check.

It was quick and easy, and the temp check people were always very friendly. After we scanned our temps, Jon and Brandy stopped to see their favorite sales guy at Luxury of Time, and we made a left and headed to the Vera Bradley store.

I had decided we needed another Vera backpack so I was pretty sure I was going to buy one of those and decided on the print with the snacks, I'm not sure what it's called but it's probably my favorite Vera pattern yet. As I was browsing I spotted their new lay flat duffel and decided I needed that too. While I was setting up embroidery on both bags Allie found a makeup bag with a corgi embroidered on it.

The little corgi looked just like one of ours. She brought it over and wanted it and after chatting with the embroiderer about what she could put it on Allie picked out a crossbody bag to put it on. It turned out to be a great purchase for her, she carried it the entire trip and with the new security scanners another bag wasn't a big deal at all.

It was her "big thing" souvenir wise for the trip, but it is special and she loves it. I was excited that it was a rare case where we were able to combine the DVC discount of free embroidery with the AP discount, making them a little better deal.

Then we walked around a bit before we got a text saying that our table was ready 10 minutes early at... Morimoto Asia.


This was a highly anticipated reservation and we were all excited about dining there.

Even Allie said this was the meal she was looking forward to most for the trip. Grandma and Grandpa decided to skip this one, so we were a party of 6. We had all heard about the A5 Wagyu, and Brandy gave it a try. Melissa and I decided to get the filet and spare ribs and then switch halfway through. Jon tried the Buri-bop fish bowl, and Allie got dumplings while Marshall got noodles.


The restaurant is beautiful and we were seated at a big round table with a bug lazy susan. The Wagyu and the Buri-Bop were both cooked table side, at the same time. While it was a good show be prepared for lots going on if your table orders both of these things.



It was a beautiful restaurant building, and we ate on the second floor and got to cross a glass floor bridge and loved how the bar "flows" through the whole building.


It was an impressive space, and they even gave us a complimentary photo postcard to commemorate eating there.


Now for the food. The ribs were the most unique thing I've ever eaten. We have talked about these things multiple times.


They were my favorite food item of the trip, so I will attempt to describe them: They were deep fried pork ribs, which had a nice glaze on the outside (which reminded Allie of Orange chicken) and then they were rich and super tender on the inside. They were very filling, and somehow I managed to eat three or four of them, along with some of the steak we shared too.

I made it through one rib and then swapped for the steak. I'm really not sure what my opinion of the ribs are, I know I liked them they just leave me confused.

The steak was quite good, with lots of flavor although not quite as tender as I prefer, like the ribs were.


The Wagyu, on the other hand was not quite as exceptional as we had expected, since we had heard about it for years. Yes, it came with a certificate, but (spoiler alert) we all felt that the Wagyu at Teppan Edo was superior. It is a big show, but the stuff from Teppan Edo truly melts in your mouth, and this just wasn't as good, despite costing more.

Overall it was a great meal. We'd definately dine here again but I don't think it made it on our list for every trip.

After we left Morimoto, we headed to pick up the embroidered bags at the Vera store. Allie was super thrilled to begin showing off her Corgi.


We also met back up with Grandma and Grandpa, who both bought jackets to help stay warm. Grandma got a quilted Mickey one and Grandpa found a nice puffer jacket at Columbia.


It was good they decided to buy coats because some of our coldest weather was yet to come.

They headed back to the resort, and we went to the Lego store. We had to wait in a line to get in for about 5-10 minutes, but inside it wasn't too crowded. Allie wanted to build a mini-figure, but all of the appointments were filled for the night. Marshall got a monster truck, then we went to the World of Disney.



We were on a mission to find a new pair of crocs to once again size up on Marshall's beloved black Disney crocs.

Unfortunately, they were not there in his size, so the search would have to continue.

Allie had her eye on the Nuimos but couldn't decide on just one so we walked out empty handed not being able to find the shoes or make up our mind on which stuffed character to take home.

Then we walked through the Co-Op before heading to the buses. We got there at 9:50, and a bus arrived at 9:51, left at 9:54, and we were back to WL at 10:10. I think this was our best Disney Spring round trip transit time ever, and was fortunately nearly repeated later in the trip.

We tucked in the kids and were excited for our next day at Epcot. We couldn't wait to check out Festival of the Arts and potentially procure our first Castle of the trip.

Check back to see how successful we were at Festival of the Arts in our next update.

 

[Paulaparm]

Great update

 

[Isabelle12345]

It is so much fun reading your reports! I have been looking through some of your previous TR over the past week, you really have had really nice vacations over the past few years
Allie and Marshall have grown so much, ans it sounds like they love Disney even more than before!
I have to ask: what type of camera do you use? I am thinking about upgrading my camera and your pictures are just gorgeous! Is it heavy to carry around?
Looking forward to reading more!!

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Great update

Thanks, it was a fun first full day. We weren’t sure we had enough to cover the night at Disney Springs, but there was lots to talk about.

It is so much fun reading your reports! I have been looking through some of your previous TR over the past week, you really have had really nice vacations over the past few years
Allie and Marshall have grown so much, ans it sounds like they love Disney even more than before!
I have to ask: what type of camera do you use? I am thinking about upgrading my camera and your pictures are just gorgeous! Is it heavy to carry around?
Looking forward to reading more!!

Thanks so much! We are so glad that you enjoy following the fun we had on our trips, and watching the kids get bigger.

We currently use a Canon EOS RP full frame mirrorless. It is a decent size camera to carry, but is smaller than a regular SLR.

If you’re interested can read about when we got the latest camera here: https://www.disboards.com/threads/s...9-and-february-2020-ptr.3754048/post-60908295

We also use our iPhones quite a bit to fill in the gaps and when we don’t want to carry the big camera or its batteries are dead. The phone pics have gotten much better over the years.

Another key to success is Melissa edits all the pictures in Adobe Lightroom before posting them in the trip reports. The ones I post during the trip on the Wilderness Lodge thread are un-edited, since we don’t spend the time to edit during the trip, but when we have the time it helps the pictures all look a little better.

 

[Isabelle12345]

Thanks, it was a fun first full day. We weren’t sure we had enough to cover the night at Disney Springs, but there was lots to talk about.


Thanks so much! We are so glad that you enjoy following the fun we had on our trips, and watching the kids get bigger.

We currently use a Canon EOS RP full frame mirrorless. It is a decent size camera to carry, but is smaller than a regular SLR.

If you’re interested can read about when we got the latest camera here: https://www.disboards.com/threads/s...9-and-february-2020-ptr.3754048/post-60908295

We also use our iPhones quite a bit to fill in the gaps and when we don’t want to carry the big camera or its batteries are dead. The phone pics have gotten much better over the years.

Another key to success is Melissa edits all the pictures in Adobe Lightroom before posting them in the trip reports. The ones I post during the trip on the Wilderness Lodge thread are un-edited, since we don’t spend the time to edit during the trip, but when we have the time it helps the pictures all look a little better.

Thanks!

 

[Wood Nymph]

I was surprised that they put the new WL/FW boat dock where the GF/Poly boat dock used to be. But I do like the new dock and there is much more room there.

They used to have the Mickey tie die in the area between WL and BR, but I think this is a better location. The parents can sit down while the kids design their shirts.

I've heard a lot of people say that Morimoto was good, but not as good as they expected it to be. I'm surprised about the Waygu beef. That should be perfect.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Thanks!

Let us know if you want to talk cameras and photography. It can be a lot of fun.

I was surprised that they put the new WL/FW boat dock where the GF/Poly boat dock used to be. But I do like the new dock and there is much more room there.

We were surprised too, but it works well, and with where security is you cna now switch between a WL and FW boat there without entering MK security, which we couldn't do last year.

They used to have the Mickey tie die in the area between WL and BR, but I think this is a better location. The parents can sit down while the kids design their shirts.

Yes, the last time the kids did it it was on the path to the buses, but this was a more photogenic location, and the tables were tight there too.

I've heard a lot of people say that Morimoto was good, but not as good as they expected it to be. I'm surprised about the Waygu beef. That should be perfect.

Exactly! It was a fine meal, but just didn't live up to the hype in our opinions. We do however have a very high opinion of Teppan Edo, so it did have stiff competition. Those ribs though, they were something really neat. I plan on getting them at the take out window next trip.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

I "slept in" today and didn't get out of bed until just before the 7:00 Geyser. I took a lot of pictures from the balcony, but here are a few of my favorites.




Since we were in no hurry with the 11 AM park open at Epcot, I hung out in the room for a while before I went out about 8:00. The weather this morning was great, and having no wind made it feel even nicer. I walked around the resort and got some pictures in my favorite places in full daylight.







About 9:00 we ordered breakfast from Roaring Fork, and I went down to pick it up and then we ate it in the room. This works great for us with the 2 bedroom, and there was plenty of space for Grandma and Grandpa to come over an hang out too.


Neither Allie nor I are morning people and having lazy mornings in the room was really nice this trip. I could enjoy a cup of coffee and be fully awake before tackling the day. Taking a cup of coffee with you in the morning is challenging right now with the mask requirement and having to be stationary and not on a bus to drink it.

We are definitely not "rope drop" people as a group, but I was concerned going into the trip about the late opening on Epcot days. It worked out perfectly though, since we didn't need to rush. It gave everyone time to get up and get ready and still make it to the park near opening. This schedule worked great for us.

It really did. The biggest challenge with the late Epcot opening is lunch ADR's, if you have one in World Showcase and you enter from the front of the park you pretty much have to just go to lunch right at rope drop to make sure you aren't sprinting across the park.

On this day we left the room about 10:30, and after collecting everyone in the lobby we made it down to the bus stop at 10:56. The sign showed 11:04 for an Epcot bus, but it pulled in at 10:58, loaded up Grandma's ECV, and left right at 11:04.


We arrived at Epcot at 11:15 and made our way into the park.


Security was quick and easy, then we made our way in and saw the new monoliths.


After that , we headed left and followed the construction walls towards Test Track. The detours were interesting, and the group had some questions about our path, but we made it to Test Track.


Since it had a 65 minute wait, we decided to go to the Wyland tent instead.


Touring without fast passes was occasionally frustrating and Test Track was one of those frustrations.
The Wyland tent was our first bit of Festival of the Arts though and we were excited.

Festival of the Arts was a surprise hit for us during our trip last year, and was one of the things we were looking forward to the most for this time. We wanted to make it there early in the trip and check out what was available, which we figured would be a good Saturday activity and we would do more rides when the crowds were lower during the week.

From there we started working our way around World Showcase counter-clockwise. It didn't take long to find something cool, as Melissa stopped just before Canada.

I've been looking for something for my new office for a while and spotted this Stitch that I really loved. I wasn't ready to commit though.


Just around the corner though was a new Castle painting we hadn't seen before, and she decided we needed that one.

I spotted this Paint by Number Castle piece, it's so clever the way it's done and I loved it. The artist was right there signing so we stopped and had it signed.


He was Joseph Yakovetic, and a super nice guy who recently moved to Florida from Southern California. We got to stop and chat with him about comparing the weather and scenery between CA and FL, and he was a very nice guy. This is what we love about Festival of the Arts, these super talented artists are really friendly and willing to chat.


This standing around and talking was a little boring for Marshall, but Grandpa took him over to look at light up toys at a nearby booth. He decided that he really NEEDED a bubble blower, and since we was good and it was on sale, we figured it would be a good investment in everyone's sanity for the day and week to come.

He was good. It turned out to be a great investment and was heavily played with for the ENTIRE trip. We went through 7 refills in that thing.

Bubble blower technology has improved, and this one consistently performed very well. You will see random bubbles in many of the pictures for the rest of the trip.


The kids started this thing where they would blow the bubbles in the canopy of the stroller where they would collect and then push the top back and "launch" giant bubble bombs.

It was cute to see their teamwork. Just past Canada we saw that they were using the festival building on the outside of the circle. We had never been inside it, but had seen people coming and going from other special events there in the past. We went inside to check it out.


We were impressed with the size of the building and the variety of artists booths inside it. Larry Dotson's booth was in here, along with Tim Rogerson, who we met last year.


And the Gigantic Kincaid booth. They had some really interesting 3D pieces in the Kincaid booth this year. There were also two food booths and some live entertainment as well.

Those Kincaids were cool. Allie wanted a snack, so we got her some Ratatouille.

The plating of this dish was really pretty and looked pretty much just like the movie.


As she was eating, a live demonstration started on the stage, where this guy painted with his bare hands live in front of everyone. It turned out it was Stephen Fishwick, who talked about his super power of dyslexia after revealing that he painted a beautiful sorcerer Mickey upside down.


We all really enjoyed his show and spoiler alert, we got to talk to him later in the trip.

All part of the excitement of Festival of the Arts. In there we also saw Tim Rogerson's "Big Hug" Mickey and Minnie painting that we saw him working on last year. Melissa loves this piece and was drawn to it from across the room, but it was a large original, and priced at $5500.


It is absolutely one of my favorites. I hope someday they decide to make more because the price tag of the original is outside of my budget.

It's for sure a "maybe someday" kinda piece though.

I hope that one way or another we can acquire one of those someday. I kinda like the Mickey loves Minnie theme.

After that we were getting hungry, and knew that Fish and Chips were just around the corner. We were glad to see that we could just get in line and order them, and even better there was a relaxation area right next to there where we could sit down and eat.


It was a great lunch and the fish was just as good as I remember.

We had this as our first Disney meal on our honeymoon, and had been telling Jon and Brandy about it but they had never made it there.

With the seating area right there, it was one of the easier QS meal locations of the trip, and one that we would come back for...

Just a side note if you're moving those metal chairs around watch your shins. Each time I picked up one I banged the dang leg into my shin.

Ouch yes. Unfortunately that was repeated too...

Check back in our next update, as we continue collecting castles...

 

[mansionterror]

I've enjoyed reading about your trip so far. Looking forward to the next installment.

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

Your morning photos of the resort are gorgeous. I really want to go to see the Festival of the Arts sometime. It looks really cool.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

I've enjoyed reading about your trip so far. Looking forward to the next installment.

Thanks for joining in, and so are we! We should be able to write some more in the next couple of days.

Your morning photos of the resort are gorgeous. I really want to go to see the Festival of the Arts sometime. It looks really cool.

Thanks so much, but it is just such a beautiful subject to shoot.
We didn’t think we would like it as much as food and wine, but we probably like it more because of the interactions with the artists. It really is neat, and should be on your bucket list.

 

[eliseisawkward]

Nice relaxing morning! Certainly a bummer the line for test track was so long, but at least the festival has so much you can do! Can’t wait to see all the castles you collect!!

 

[footballmouse]

Your pictures of the resort are beautiful.

 

[MyGoofy26]

I really need to make it to Festival of the Arts. My husband knows an artist through regional ComicCons who several years ago got commissioned by Disney for official work (they had a line of postcards with his prints at one point). He’s always down there and posting about his new prints and it makes me want to go buy them and scope out others.

Sounds like the late park opening was a great compromise in a mixed travel group!